Swedish tennis player Mikael Ymer has been handed a suspension for 18 months. The reason cited for the suspension was the violation of anti-doping rules. The Internation Tennis Federation (ITF) had appealed to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) despite being cleared of three whereabouts failures.
Ymer missed 3 anti-doping test attempts over 12 months. He was subsequently charged with a potential violation of the anti-doping rule in January 2022.
The Swede had appealed against the charges leveled against him. He was cleared of all charges by an independent tribunal in June 2022. ITF had appealed the decision. In a statement, the CAS wrote that the ITF had requested 2 years of ineligibility but the panel held up the decision of suspension.
The CAS also added that Mikael had accepted the first two failures, on April 22nd and August 10th. But he did not accept the 3rd, which took place on November 7th. Mikael blamed it on a miscommunication with his agent.
“The first-instance tribunal found that… the Doping Control Officer did all that was required of him to locate the player, but that no negligence could be attributed to the player or his agent,” the CAS said.
“The player was accommodated in a different hotel than the one he had requested when making his reservation. But the player’s agent (who updated the player’s whereabouts on his behalf) did not receive news of that change. And therefore did not make the necessary update on that occasion.” read the statement.
The Committee thus concluded that Ymr had failed to ensure his compliance by not verifying his whereabouts. The player assumed it would be corrected by his agent or the Tennis Authority.
Mikael Ymer spoke up about his ban
Mikael Ymer did not decide to suspend him well. Following this news, the Swede tennis player released a defiant statement on social media. “Having already been cleared once, and wholeheartedly standing by the fact that I do not feel that the third offence was committed, I find their decision to try me again and subsequently find me guilty, unfair,” wrote Ymr.
In January 2022, the ITF charged me with a potential anti-doping rule violation for having 3 missed out of competition test attempts in a 12-month period. I fought that charge at a hearing, and was cleared by an independent tribunal of 3 arbitrators in June of 2022. The ITF…
— Mikael Ymer (@MikaelYmer) July 18, 2023
“On top of that, I find it difficult to comprehend that they found an 18-month suspension to be a just punishment. I understand that these rules have been put in place to protect the integrity of our sport and that they are there for a reason.”
“I do not believe I broke those rules and my conscience is clear with God as my witness,” he wrote. Ymer is currently ranked 51 in the world. He had made it to the third round of Wimbledon after defeating 9th-seeded Taylor Fritz earlier this month.
